Young innovators, such as The Maccabeats, use new media like YouTube to explain and celebrate Judaism.

Dear Reader,
As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before.
Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications,
like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations,
we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open
and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news
and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.

NEW YORK – If you’re a Jew, you know other Jews. And if you know other Jews and have an e-mail address, not to mention a Facebook page, chances are very good that you’ve been part of the newest Jewish phenomenon: the forwarding of viral Jewish holiday video links.

Videos – with greatly varying production values – dealing with Jewish holidays (usually in a humorous way), have been around for a few years. But ever since Yeshiva University’s a cappella group The Maccabeats’ “Candlelight” video parody of Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” got over 5 million hits on YouTube, the field has exploded – with self-appointed parodists, songsters and court jesters getting in touch with their inner-kosher hams.

The Maccabeats’ Immanuel Shalev told The Jerusalem Post that after the group’s sophomore Internet foray with “Purim Song” (a takeoff on Pink’s “Raise Your Glass”), there will be no Pessah video from the group this year.

“We figured we’d rather do a song for Purim, which needed a song a bit more than Pessah. We’re actually back in the studio working on our next project,” Shalev said.

There’s no shortage of Pessah parodies circulating on the Internet, though, in the Maccabeats’ absence.

“I’m building these pyramids for thousands of years, and I’m like/Forget you!” sing The Fountainheads in their Dayenuinspired parody of Cee-Lo’s profanity- laden hit. The group Six13’s “P-A-S-S-O-V-E-R” is a Maccabeatsesque version of Usher’s “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love.”

And then, of course, there’s “Best Seder in the USA,” to the tune of Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA.”

When asked how he felt to have inspired so much Internet creativity, Shalev said he thinks holidayspecific viral videos – musical or otherwise – are great.

“YouTube not only gives us an amazing opportunity to express our faith in a fun and creative way, but to connect Jews from all around the world,” Shalev said.

With over a million hits on YouTube, Aish HaTorah’s “Google Exodus” is an aspirant to the Maccabeats’ throne as holiday frontrunner, telling the story of the Exodus via Internet tropes (i.e.Moses orders 50,000,000 frogs from Amazon.com, sends G-mails to Pharaoh requesting that his people be let go, etc.).

“The recent wave of viral Jewish YouTube videos has energized the Jewish community – young and old – about our holidays,” Rabbi Jason Miller, president of Access Computer Technology and director of Kosher Michigan, a kosher certification agency, said.

“They have also spread our customs and rituals far and wide throughout cyberspace. This demonstrates how the world’s borders have disappeared,” Miller added.

“Without discriminating between denominations or faiths, the messages of
Hanukka and Passover are being distributed free of charge to a mass
audience in a few minutes of exciting video that you can dance to. This
is a great thing.”

In fact, nay-sayers are few and far between –
or at least they’re hard to find on the Internet. Perhaps
understandably. Jewish Theological Seminary Prof. Jack Wertheimer says
he’s a personal fan of the YouTube clips, and doesn’t fault them for
“dumbing down” Yiddishkeit.

“I like the fact that Jews are using the new media to explain and celebrate Judaism,” Wertheimer said.

“It’s important, especially for Jewish children, to have role models who are playful and energetic about their Jewishness.”

“I
assume the popularity of these videos stems in part from the fact that
young people are engaging in culturally creative ways with their
Judaism. With all the anxiety about the commitments of younger Jews,
here are vivid reminders of just how engaged some younger Jews are,”
Wertheimer noted, citing the Maccabeats’ video as a particular example.

“The
fact that Orthodox Jews are hip, reaching out to Jews of all sorts, and
joyful, probably adds to the appeal of these groups” he added. “The
more interesting question to me is, where are the counterparts to these
video clips in Conservative, Reform and nondenominational circles?”
Rabbi David Wolpe, of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, thinks such videos
are “clever entertainments and might well inspire, rather than
discourage, more sophisticated presentations.”

“There is no command to be joyless,” Wolpe wrote in an e-mail to the Post, adding: “C’mon, Jordana, you like them too, right?”

Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>

The Jerusalem Post Customer Service Center can be contacted with any questions or requests:
Telephone: *2421 * Extension 4 Jerusalem Post or 03-7619056 Fax: 03-5613699E-mail: subs@jpost.com
The center is staffed and provides answers on Sundays through Thursdays between 07:00 and 14:00 and Fridays only handles distribution requests between 7:00 and
13:00
For international customers: The center is staffed and provides answers on Sundays through Thursdays between 7AM and 6PM
Toll Free number in Israel only 1-800-574-574
Telephone +972-3-761-9056
Fax: 972-3-561-3699
E-mail: subs@jpost.com